How to Protect Customer Data in a Call Center
The call center is a customer-driven industry. Usually, a call center processes millions of customer data every day, whether it is for resolving customer queries or for lead generation. But several people are working in the call center, especially agents, so the risk of data leakage is always there.
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| How to Protect Customer Data in a Call Center |
Therefore, every call center should take strict steps for customer data security.
In today’s blog, we will learn “How to protect customer data in a call center”?
Before moving ahead with the corrective measures let’s first understand :
Why Customer data privacy is important?
Below are some reasons why customer data privacy becomes important for every call center:
- Customers can feel safe and comfortable while sharing his/her personal information.
- To avoid penalties and lawsuits against the call centers.
- It creates a positive business reputation and brand.
- To prevent cyber attacks on customer data.
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How to protect customer data in a call center”
1. Sensitize Staff :
Data privacy is a very sensitive topic for any industry, especially in the call center industry where customers are the business and primary source of revenue. Therefore, every call center must ensure that the importance of customer data privacy should be known to every staff member, especially the call center agent who directly deals with customers’ data.
There are several good practices by which staff can be sensitized about the importance of data security and its consequences. 3 Most common practices are mentioned below
2. Shift or floor huddles
3. Must include the importance of data security in the training module.
2. Limited Data Access:
The second best solution to protect customer data privacy is to limit access to data. The more people have access to the data, the more the chances of a data breach, so a call center should give access to the data only to a few accountable persons as much as possible, especially when the data contains contact number, address, and other financial details of the customer.
Hence an organization should ensure that fewer people have access to the data so that the risk of your data breach is also lower.
In a call center, we understand that the customer care executives are front-line warriors and to handle the customer’s query they need the customer details, but instead of giving direct access to the entire file, upload the data in the dialer so that they can see only what they should see.
Read more about Dialer and its types in the call center?
3. Enable VPN :
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. VPN is an advanced technology that helps in maintaining customer data privacy. Nowadays, due to the in-demand work-from-home culture, it has become necessary that some additional steps should be taken to protect against customer data breaches.
By enabling VPN you mask information like your location, IP address, and search history which protects you from Internet hackers and malware attacks. Using VPN can secure remote connections to the internet for protection against data interception.
While using VPN is legal in India, there are several countries where VPNs are completely banned
4. Enable Firewall :
Nowadays using Firewall is a common practice to secure organizations and prevent customer data leakage. Enabling A Firewall works as a layer between the organization’s (private ) network and public network which allows only those websites and applications that are authorized by the admin.
In general social applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, etc. are very useful in sharing important information and documents but allowing such applications in the office can be very hazardous as these are easy resources to compromise the data security of customers. Thus enabling a firewall can help to prevent access to such applications in an office environment.